Crash Cymbal size preferences for recording

Lately I've been playing an 18" and a 20". 20" crashes are hit or miss. Many of them are kind of slow, but I have one special Zildjian from the 60" that behaves like a smaller cymbal, with the tone of a larger cymbal. I can ride on it with stick tips or the Ghrol bash.

I like odd sized cymbals, so I have a couple of 15"s and a couple of 17"s that I like a lot.

It's hard to go wrong with an 18" they just kinda work on most things if it's a good sounding cymbal and work with the others one has.

As a novice drummer, I suggest you bring your cymbals along to hear how the potential new cymbals work with what you own.

Also, and I can't stress this enough, don't judge cymbals that are one of those cymbal walls at music stores. Always take them off and put them on a stand. The wall AND the other cymbals do all kinds of weird shit acoustically!

Sustain and diameter aren't necessarily directly correlated. You can have short, large cymbals, and lengthy, small cymbals. And cymbals -- even when they're the same make and model -- can vary pretty wildly in sound. So it's always best to audition whatever you're buying, and by the specific cymbal you tried (not a different unit of the same make/model).

For recording, I tend to favor 16"-20" crashes. Smaller than 16" often sounds wimpy or splashy to me. Most of my crashes are 18-20". For all-purpose use, I'd say 18-19" is a sweet spot. It's tough to go wrong with a good ol' fashioned Zildjian A. The 'thin' models are usually nice to record, and 18", 19", and 20" all sound good. Thinner = lower pitch, btw, which can seem counter intuitive to new players.

You can also find a lot of cymbal demos on YouTube. They'll probably not sound exactly like they do in the video, but it can give you an idea of how they sound ballparkwise alongside the cymbals you have.

Personally I have a weak spot for the Zildjian K 16" Dark Crash Thin for recording.

Some great tips in here already, and I probably don't have anything great to add.  But I like talking drums, so I might blabber on a bit haha

I'd agree that 18s are probably the safest bet, all things being equal. I'm only tracking drums, and if I was starting over from scratch, I would start with at least two or three 18" crashes of slightly different thicknesses, so, like a thin, a medium thin, and a heavy....something like that.  Then, I'd build out from there.  I really like the Istanbul Agop Traditional crashes. They have a ton of different thicknesses, from paperthin to heavy, and they all differ by like 50-100g as you go up in thickness. For those not well-versed in their drum-nerd-ery, cymbals also get classified now by gram weight. Its sort of pointless, but sort of not.

As has been stated, cymbals are all different, even ones from the same company/line/size. You really just need to try them out to see how they all fit with each other, and also in your room.  When I've been on the hunt for new/additional cymbals, I've taken mine to drum shops just to make sure I get a nice spread between my current cymbals and any new prospects.  Nothing worse than having two cymbals be REALLY close in sonic character.  


MyCymbal.com or their YouTube page is a GREAT resource for cymbal sounds, as you can see exact cymbals, and their audio files are pretty good and not overly processed, if at all.

If I was the OP, I would get a nice dark 18" crash. As others have mentioned, smaller cymbals, even 16s, can sound a bit thin and splatty, or they end up being really present and stick out like a sore thumb, like an icepick to the brain. To me, its MUCH harder to find a good 16 that records well relative to an 18.

A lot of drummer-y trends recently have been for really trashy, thin, dirty crashes. Those usually sound great live on the floor, but they can be overbearingly trashy under a mic, and they don't have a ton of presence. They can get buried pretty quickly, which may actually be great depending on the player and performance! Even though it isn't super in vogue at the moment, regular old medium Zildjian As are hard to beat. They just work.


My cymbal stable is pretty large at this point, and its mainly 18s and 20s for crashes.   Probably 3 or 4 18s, and maybe like 6 20s.  Theres an odd 17, and maybe like 2 or 3 16s.  I'm a larger crash guy.  I think they are much easier to control.  Smaller stuff is nice, but anything less than a 17 always seems like an effects cymbal or a novelty, unless of course you find a really balanced 16/15/14 crash.   They are out there, but you gotta dig!  




Of course, now that I've mulled this over a bit, I'd also say maybe get a SECOND 16 and then have TWO 16s so you can make a set of 16" hi hats.  A set of 16" crash hats and a 22" ride is just sublime.

Thanks to everyone. I ended up getting a used 18” Zildjian A Medium Thin Crash nearby. I can see how cymbals can sneakily get costly as one starts accumulating them like guitar pedals.

Stay away from the B8s!   Like Zildjian, or Paiste, or any other cymbal manufacturer, Sabian has multiple lines with varying quality.  I've heard some that were pretty nice, but overall I still prefer Zildjian.  I think the only Sabian I have right now is a HH 8" splash (which I almost never use).  I have a couple Paiste (an old 20" 602 ride and a 16" paper thin crash prototype) and the only reason I kept those is because they sound like Zildjians lol.

in that ballpark probably (but difficult to say for sure - no recorded cymbal ever really sounds the same to me in person).  don't plan to ever sell it.  I picked it up used, probably 35 years ago, when I first came to Austin.  I would go to this store and kept trying it out, and it was nothing like my other cymbals (which, don't laugh, at the time, were Sabian!) and I finally bought it and it's been great for recording when I want a certain sound.  It's probably closest to a Zildjian medium ride, but a little brighter I think.  Some sizzle without actually having sizzles...

That sounds like a pretty special one. My high school teacher had a set of Ludwig Champaign Sparkles with 602 ride and hats all from the mid 60s. They're the only Paiste cymbals I really dug. 

That's a nice collection.  I remember when the Constantinoples hit and all my jazz player friends were snatching them up. I'v eonly ever heard recordings of the Byzance, I haven't had a chance to play them. 

Don't forget that sometimes a piece of gaff tape underneath going from the bell to the edge is a great way to control sustain. Different lengths depending on how much you sustain want to kill.